From the Workshop of the Mesopotamian Scribe

This volume presents first editions of a variety of cuneiform tablets from the Old Babylonian period belonging to the collection of the late Shlomo Moussaieff. It makes available for the first time three texts representing varying levels of Mesopotamian scribal education. The first is what the authors argue is the most complete copy of the first fifty lines of the standard version of the Sumerian epic Gilgameš and the Bull of Heaven. The second is a hitherto unpublished bilingual (Sumerian-Akkadian) lexical list of unknown provenance, similar to the Proto-Aa syllabary. Each of the 314 entries preserved on this tablet provides a pronunciation gloss, a Sumerian logogram, and an Akkadian translation. A unique feature of this list is that the signs are arranged on the basis of graphic concatenation: each sign contains one of the graphic components of the preceding sign. It also yields a great number of hitherto unknown, synonymous Akkadian translations to the Sumerian logograms. The final chapter contains an edition of two groups of lenticular school tablets, containing thirty-three elementary-level scribal exercises.

With this volume, Jacob Klein and Yitschak Sefati preserve and disseminate important artifacts that advance the study of Sumerian literature, Mesopotamian lexicography, and ancient Near Eastern scribal education.

“Editing the texts in this volume is a tremendous accomplishment. One can only imagine all the effort and scholarship that went into this publication, which hopefully will reach a broader audience than Sumerologists alone.”—John Hayes, Review of Biblical Literature

Jacob Klein is Professor Emeritus of Assyiology and Biblical Studies at Bar-Ilan University, a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and one of the founders of the Israel Society for Assyriology and Near Eastern Studies. He is the coauthor of In Those Distant Days: Anthology of Mesopotamian Literature.

Yitschak Sefati is Senior Research Fellow at the Samuel Noah Kramer Institute of Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan Univesity. He is the author of Love Songs in Sumerian Literature.

Preface

General Introduction

I. Gilgameš and the Bull of Heaven

Introduction

Outline of the Plot

Political-Historical Background

Description of the Moussaieff Tablet (ShM)

Composite Text and Translation

Commentary

Score

The Mussaieff Tablet

Transliteration .

Copy

Photographs

Word Index

II. An Old Babylonian Bilingual Lexical Text

Introduction

Transliteration and Translation

Commentary

Sequence of Basic Sign Forms

Comparative Synopsis of KA, IGI, and KU in the Syllabaries ShM, Proto-Ea, and Ea

Comparative Synopsis of Syllabaries —

Number of Lexical Entries

Syllabary

Sumerian-Akkadian Word Index

Akkadian-Sumerian Word Index

Photographs

III. Lenticular School Tablets

Introduction

Collection A (nos. 1–10)

Collection B (nos. 46–69)

Word Index

Bibliography and Abbreviations

General Index